Grassroots Sun Dried Ethiopian Sidamo

Nice Packaging

Recently I had the privilege to sample coffee from Grassroots Coffee which is located in Thomasville, GA. They have a full service coffee shop and roast their own coffee in house.

In a well thought out package, Grassroots sent one pound each of Sun-dried Ethiopian Sidamo and Grassroots Espresso Blend. Along with the coffee were two Grassroots stickers, a business card, and card with a picture of the Grassroots crew. The stickers were a nice touch. This review will cover the Ethiopian Sidamo and a subsequent review will cover the Espresso Blend.

Sun-dried Ethiopian Sidamo

The Ethiopian Sidamo was nicely roasted to a medium-light to medium roast. The beans were fragrant with touch of licorice and a bit of spice. As I took a second whiff, I sensed a touch of fruitiness as well. The beans were surely unique.

Having not had Sidamo in a long while and having nothing to balance or compare it to, my initial impression is, “Wow!” what a good cup of coffee. The licorice permeates the palate with blueberry notes weaved throughout.  As the cup cools more fruity, natural earthy flavors come out.  I drink it black, but it stands up to cream as my wife will attest. Additionally, Sun-dried Ethiopian Sidamo makes a decent espresso.

Overall Sun-died Ethiopian Sidamo from Grassroots Coffee makes for a great cup and one I’ll be adding to my list of favorites.

Perk Pot

At 6 am last Saturday, my 11 year old son woke me up to report that the electricity just went out.

No problem, I thought to myself, as I went into the kitchen to start the morning coffee. Here’s my chance to use my antique-looking peculator pot that I picked up on ebay recently.  It has it’s own oil fired burner underneath.  I can use it to impress my friends or brew coffee with out electricity.

It was Coffee Survival Mode time. This is just like camping. I’ll look like a real coffee hero.

No power also means no water.  We have a deep well from which the water is pumped to a storage tank in the basement, and with no power, the pump won’t work.  Fortunately, there was enough reserve in the the water tank for a pot of coffee and a few flushes of the toilet.  So, I filled the peculator.

Now to the beans.  Rats!  How was I to grind the beans? Perhaps I could dig out the manual grinder that is buried with our camping gear? After searching for the manual grinder, I had no luck.  What to do?

Makeshift Mortar and Pestle

Then I remembered reading about the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony where the woman who is roasting the beans takes them off the heat and crushes them with a mortar and pestle. That’s what I’ll do. It worked, but it was a long process, taking about 15-20 minutes. With a little elbow grease, I had the coffee ground fine enough for my liking.

OK. Time to light the burner and get this coffee started. Double rats! It wouldn’t light. Not sure why, it was filled with oil, so I needed to look for another heat source. What to do?

On the search again, this time for sterno. I knew there should be some in the house because my wife used it for warming trays when we had family over for Easter. Found the sterno with no problem.

Life is good. The coffee is going.

All was well with my early Saturday morning.

This is how I brewed my coffee on a morning without electricity.

Is your coffee habit dependent on electricity or can you make do without plugging in?

What would you have done?

Coffee BBQ Sauce
1 c. Ketchup
3T cider vinegar
4 T brown sugar
3 T yellow mustard
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 c very strong french press coffee
Dash Tabasco sauce

Combine all ingredients except coffee in saucepan and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add coffee and cool to room temperature.

Here’s a quick survey. Trying get a sense of how coffee folks brew their coffee.

Thanks,

Joe

Added 4/16/2011: Results of Brew Poll

We have been on the lookout for a Coffee Glazed Ham recipe. Turning to a Google search, we found three recipes, one of which we have ruled out because it calls for instant coffee granules.  Yuck!

Here are two links to Coffee Glazed Ham:

1) Coffee-Glazed Ham

2) Molasses-Coffee Glazed Ham

Which one will we choose?  The jury is still out.  How about you? 

Do you have a “Secret Coffee-Glazed Ham” recipe?

Or are we totally nuts for wanting to coat our Easter ham with coffee?

Photo by aimeepub

Brownie - Photo by King Author Flour

I love brownies.  Delectable chocolate delights.  And I make a mean triple fudge brownie.  Two boxes of double fudge brownie mix, a whole bag of chocolate chips, and double fudge chocolate icing.  Put that all together and you have pure chocolate delight.  Sometimes adding coffee to the mix makes an even more awesome brownie as if that were possible.

Several years ago I made this tasty treat for one of our family birthday get togethers.  The birthday song was over and it was now time to cut the mouth watering brownies.  Man, all eyes were wide as the knife gently cut through the icing, then the cake, and then reached the bottom of the pan making that familiar scraping sound.  Brownies for all.

We began to munch and someone exclaimed, “What’s this on the bottom?”  The bottom of the brownie had about a 1/8 inch layer of hardened crust.  I exclaimed,  “It’s the special finish.”  “Oh”  was the response.

Ha ha, I knew that if anyone suspected the bottom was slightly burned, no one would eat them.  You see my oven was on the fritz and the bottom burner burned hotter than the top creating the “Special Finish”

Thanks to @35NorthCoffeeCo for sparking the memory.

After clicking the power button on my drip coffee maker I went outside to do some chores.  Walking about I had a thought, “What can I get done before the coffee is ready?”

There are many things you can do in the short wait.  Here are the three different things I do while waiting for my brew.

1. Take care of critters.  Feed and water dog, rabbits, and chickens.

2. Pay several bills.

3. Tweet to my coffee friends. This is the funnest, but is more fun with a fresh cup in hand.

Ding. That’s it. The brew just finished. Time go drink coffee.

What can you get accomplished while waiting for your brew?

The appetizers arrive and you can’t remember the last time you had Buffalo Wings this good.  More chatting as you wait for your meal.  Your dinner arrives with another round of drinks.  Man, the food is good. You savor each bite and clean your plate.  Now it’s dessert time. Red Velvet cake for her, Cheese cake for you.

Dinner is perfect, the company fine and dessert is outstanding. Now to finish with what the restaurant boasts as the best coffee.

You take the first sip.

What just happened? The coffee is terrible.  It’s weak and stale; cream and sugar cannot overcome the flavor. Your wife makes a face and pushes the cup away.  I mean, McDonald’s coffee would have been better.

Disappointment. And the evening so far was perfect. I’m looking at the whole experience. If one part of the meal is bad, the entire meal is ruined.

Why was the restaurant coffee so awful? Is it because they can skimp on cost and buy from some cheapo coffee company? Is this coffee good to most people who don’t know the difference between great and terrible coffee?

What is your experience with restaurant coffee? If it hasn’t been good, why do you think the coffee served is so bad?

Our last post listed five favorite desserts that go with coffee.  Even though I’ve never had this dessert before, I am definitely adding this to the list.  My mouth is watering even as I read the ingredients.  If you love chocolate, and you love coffee, this is for you.  Go check out this tasty delight at Chicho’s Kitchen: Arie Chocolate Tart

Will you add his to your list?

Thanks Chicho!